Germany’s Allianz has sold its remaining stake in its Indian insurance joint venture to the Bajaj Group, ending a 24-year partnership in what is the largest deal in India’s insurance sector to date.
Bajaj Finserv said on 8 January that the group had acquired a 23% stake in its insurance subsidiaries from Allianz for 213.90 billion rupees, around $2.38 billion. The purchase gives Bajaj Finserv complete control of Bajaj General Insurance and Bajaj Life Insurance with a 75.01% holding and lifts the group’s overall stake in the two companies to 97%.
Allianz’s remaining 3% is expected to transfer over the coming months through a proposed share buyback by the insurance firms, according to Bajaj Finserv.
The transaction closes a joint venture that ran for more than two decades and marks the German insurer’s withdrawal from a direct equity position in the Indian businesses it helped build. For Bajaj, it consolidates full domestic ownership of two insurers in one of the world’s fastest-growing insurance markets.
